Author: chicagoinquirer

by Aamer Madhani WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  — President Donald Trump said Sunday that members of his newly created Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion toward rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory. The pledges will be formally announced when board members gather in Washington on Thursday for their first meeting, he said. “The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History, and it is my honor to serve as its Chairman,” Trump said in a social media posting announcing the pledges.…

by Ben Finley WASHINGTON — White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota’s Twin Cities area and hundreds more will depart in the days ahead as part of the Trump administration’s drawdown of its immigration enforcement surge. A “small” security force will stay for a short period to protect remaining immigration agents and will respond “when our agents are out and they get surrounded by agitators and things got out of control,” Homan told CBS’s Face the Nation. He did not define “small.” He also said agents will keep investigating fraud…

by Joseph Omoremi WASHINGTON DC -A February 13, 2026 deadline has been issued to both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)  to produce a “Vaughn index” report on why 50 out of 238 pages processed on the criminal investigation conducted on  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria between 1990 and 1994 were redacted and 172-pages withheld. “Joint status report has parroted the same message for the past six months with no anticipated end in sight,” hence the need for the deadline among other steps towards resolving the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dispute”, said…

by Saleh Nwanamilongo CHICAGO, IL – Opposition to a deal that would allow U.S. companies access to critical minerals in Congo is growing after Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi returned from the U.S. minerals summit last week — with praises from U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. lawmakers. Tshisekedi has offered U.S. companies access to eastern Congo’s rich minerals — mostly untapped and estimated to be worth $24 trillion – as a bargaining chip for U.S. support to help fight off rebels and build critical infrastructure in the region where Rwanda-backed rebels seized major cities last year. It comes as the…

by Mathew Lee WASHINGTON  — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading a large U.S. delegation this week to the Munich Security Conference where increasingly nervous European leaders are hoping for at least a brief reprieve from President Donald Trump’s often inconsistent policies and threats that have roiled transatlantic relations and the post-World War II international order. A year after Vice President JD Vance stunned assembled dignitaries at the same venue with a verbal assault on many of America’s closest allies in Europe, accusing them of imperiling Western civilization with left-leaning domestic programs and not taking responsibility for their own…

by Curtis Yee,  Bernald Mhee and Luena Rodriguez-Feo Vileira The Trump administration is ending the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that led to thousands of arrests, violent protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens over the past two months, border czar Tom Homan said Thursday. The operation called the Department of Homeland Security’s “largest immigration enforcement operation ever” has been a flashpoint in the debate over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, flaring up after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by federal officers in Minneapolis. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul…

by Tim Reynolds At All-Star weekend last year, Victor Wembanyama was so serious about winning that he decided to find loopholes in the rules. He and then-San Antonio teammate Chris Paul were teamed up for the skills competition, thought they outsmarted it and wound up getting disqualified. It wasn’t a great moment. But it was another example of how, to Wembanyama, winning is everything. He’s already one of the faces of the NBA, already one of the faces of the game on a global stage, and this All-Star weekend in California might only raise his stock even higher — if…

by Bill Barrow and Josh Boak WASHINGTON  — President Donald Trump used his social media account to share a video about election conspiracy theories that includes a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle. The Republican president’s Thursday night post immediately drew backlash for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. It was part of a flurry of social media activity that amplified Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and a Trump attorney general from his…

by Dave Campbell MINNEAPOLIS  — The Minnesota Timberwolves acquired guard Ayo Dosunmu from the Chicago Bulls on Thursday, adding a proven scorer to bolster their depth for the stretch run in the stacked Western Conference playoffs race. The trade was finalized by the NBA and announced about six hours after the deadlinepassed on a hectic day around the league. The Timberwolves sent 2024 first-round draft pick Rob Dillingham, deep reserve Leonard Miller and four second-round draft picks to the busy and rebuilding Bulls for Dosunmu and forward Julian Phillips. The Bulls made seven deals this week. Dosunmu, who was a…

by Mary Clare Jalonick and Joey Cappelletti WASHINGTON  — Despite rare negotiations between Democrats and President Donald Trump, a bipartisan agreement on new restrictions for federal immigration enforcement in the next two weeks will be exceedingly difficult — or even “an impossibility,” as Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. Congress is discussing potential new rules for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection after officers shot and killed two Minneapolis protesters in January. The negotiations come amid some bipartisan sentiment that Congress should step in to de-escalate tensions over the enforcement operations that have rocked Minnesota…